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The Forbidden Army
The Forbidden Army is a 2013 novel by Henrik Rohdin and is the first book in the forthcoming ''League of Planets Adventure''. The novel is available on Amazon Kindle Store. Synopsis WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS On the dangerous Border World of Piskka, ''aruntuk'' from the Krokator Star Empire lead a daring raid to kill or capture the noted heretic Anuut Oraank and cripple the financial money-laundering banks that help support the ''Hudda Kugrall'', also known as the Forbidden Army. One of the leaders of the raid, Sharm Akgu Zurra, pursues Oraank to a secluded site on the side of a crater, where Oraank falls to his death. The Imperial forces are unaware that Oraank was on Piskka to meet with Forbidden Army lieutenant Marsa Grakko and one of his human financiers. Two months later, at Shoregrove Hall in Los Angeles on Terra, Major John Gresham narrowly survives a bombing attack during a state visit to the Human Alliance by the President of Vega, Usines Haimon, in which the visiting head of state is killed. The Alliance's own President, Howard Paine, was moments away from appearing with Haimon when the bomb went off. In the wake of the attack, Gresham is reassigned at the personal request of Paine, with whom he has a past relationship, to look into a weapons theft that left fellow MID agent Lieutenant Jeff Vance on the brink of death and a Defense bureaucrat dead. Back in the Empire, in the capital of the Krokandir on Rukkur, as the culmination of the holy week of Urkuran approaches, Zurra is called to the palace to receive a special assignment from High Prod Nikkwill and the Emperor Urkus Ruskir himself. They task Zurra with heading to the city of Ankina, where the reformist and increasingly militant Progressive Movement is headquartered, to investigate a criminal named Kamaan Dakkal whom they suspect of having ties to the Hudda Kugrall. Before he he leaves, Zurra is caught up in a violent attack by the Hudda Kugrall against the Urkuran Eve proceedings and he vaguely witnesses the Emperor be killed by what appears to be a reptilian creature. Gresham's investigation leads him to search Vance's apartment, where he is knocked unconscious by SIS agents Lara Taylor and Sam Troy. They reveal their own concerns about the theft and they agree to look into a lead suggested to Gresham by his friend Fust, and head to the Zone to break into the warehouse of a Balgoshan smuggler named Lugrash. At the warehouse, they get into a firefight with Lugrash's men and are only saved when the LAPD responds to the scene. What little evidence they uncover is soon thereafter confiscated by Lara's boss, Dan Vosen. Zurra arrives in Ankina and is directed by his sukuda contact there to look into a former athlete named Fakkid Rurekk who operates most of Dakkal's establishments in the city. While incognito at Rurekk's tavern, Zurra is quickly exposed as an Imperial spy and manages to fight his way out, and chases Rurekk down into the catacombs where Rurekk falls into the water and dies. Dismayed his only lead is gone, Zurra believes he will go on leave for a period of time but is approached by the Lady Erenna, the sister of the slain Emperor, and tasked with fulfilling her nohoken. Zurra is dispatched to Terra to hunt down the bankrollers of the Hudda Kugrall. Gresham and Lara are encouraged to look into an archaic Defense program known as Supernova by Gresham's friend and Commissioner Gregory Reed. Supernova directs them to the suspicious theft of documents from the system and they find the most obvious suspect brutally murdered at his home. They are accosted by the SIS Director, Simon Cray, and told to stop the investigation. Gresham decides to seek help from Commissioner Jack French, who reached out to offer his help earlier, and is given the name Elijah Perry as a potential source of information. Later that evening, Gresham and Lara's relationship turns physical. Zurra arrives on Terra and quickly gets into trouble with the local authorities on two occasions, earning him the ire of the Ambassador, Orget Jerven. He is told that French is connected politically to Colin Hess, the head of Hessian Engineering, a defense contractor that has been accused of selling weapons and financing the Hudda Kugrall. With a search warrant, Gresham and Lara uncover that French's authorization was used to steal the weapons. Thinking that he's being played by French, Gresham storms into French's office to threaten him just as Zurra arrives to interview him. In an ensuing scuffle, French is knocked unconscious and Gresham flees with Zurra. Gresham then harbors Zurra in his home, much to Lara's discomfort. Behind the scenes, Eli Perry has been tying off loose ends for Hess' illegal empire, amongst other things ordering assassinations through Kalenn Jurkken, the Hudda Kugrall commander on Terra. Gresham's investigation has turned up Jurkken's name as a person of interest and when Lara twice approaches Perry with questions, he orders them all killed. Gresham and Zurra are brought to Jurkken's place in the Zone, where they are tortured and pumped for information by both Jurkken and Dakkal, who has been hiding out in Los Angeles. Perry reveals Lara to be dead and promises to kill them both once he is done. During a torture session, Gresham fools a guard into letting him loose and they break free, instigating a firefight in the bar, killing Jurkken and then setting the whole place ablaze. Gresham recalls that it is the evening of a major security summit and that High Prod Nikkwill will be in attendance along with President Paine, and that that is the natural target to strike at next. They find Lara's apartment empty with signs of a struggle and head to SIS headquarters to talk to Vosen and see if they can access her files. Vosen instead reveals himself as a traitor on Perry's payroll and tries to kill them. Zurra breaks his neck and they flee once again, this time to the summit. The mentally unstable Hess has hatched a daring plan to sneak his own men into the summit on Catalina Island disguised as security guards, and then detonate a bomb killing everyone, including himself. While on the bridge racing to stop an impending attack from occurring, Dakkal and his men arrive to stop Gresham and Zurra after having been informed that both Jurkken and Vosen are dead. Gresham hijacks a HUVR to race to the summit while Zurra buys him time, eventually throwing Dakkal off the bridge to his death. At the summit, Gresham makes his way to the basement and shoots Hess, but not before being shot himself. He staggers out and encounters Perry, who was going to check on Hess' progress. As he goes into shock, Perry mocks him, and in turn Gresham kills Perry with his last bullets. In the epilogue, Zurra is congratulated by his superiors and offered to stay on Terra indefinitely as a reward. Gresham is transferred to field work due to his newfound affinity for it and he fills Vance, now awake, of what they found. And finally, Richard Godford, the head of the Alliance's military, approaches President Paine with troubling news about Hess' mercenaries that suggests a connection to a wider conspiracy. Category:League of Planets Adventure Category:Books